I have a new 2014 BMW X3,100 miles. The engine shuts off every time I stop. It does this even in Comfort or Sport mode. It's as if you were driving in ECO PRO with the Auto Stop feature enabled.

When I called Service, they told me the only fix was to come in, they would get a code from BMW that would totally disable the feature. I would never be able to use it in the future even if I wanted to.

I am currently on the phone with corporate office in New Jersey.

This is the most ridiculous answer I have ever heard. I suppose if I have a problem with the radio, they will tell me to come in and they will remove he radio?

I can only assume they have completely misunderstood you as their response is as you say, ridiculous!
They will I am sure fix it properly for you, but I hope you don't have to jump through the hoops I had to to get my media screen replaced when it kept failing!

On my car, the stop/start is disabled I sport.
I like the feature and only disable it when entering a parking lot or stop and go driving.
It's a SUV; I drive it so differently than all the sports coupes I've owned before I bought the x3. Now I'm slow and efficient and boring!

I assume you know that you can turn off that feature with the button located above engine start button. The thing is you have to do that every time you start the car up.

(2014 only) After starting the car, put the vehicle in comfort, sport or sport+ mode.
Turn off the feature by pressing the button next to start. (Orange light will appear)
It will continue to default to 'off' as long as you do not use eco-mode.

When you use eco mode it defaults to 'on'. You must use one of the other modes if you want it to again default to 'off'.

Thanks to all of you replied. When I called Corporate Offices, they were actually in Columbus, Ohio. I went to three levels of support until I reached what they call the "Genius Group".

I will try to keep this short. The person I talked to acknowledged that before the vehicle reaches full operating temperature, or if the ambient temperature is below 37F degrees, there can be problems. He gave me a lot of things to check. He also said that the vehicle will remember the last setting you were in when you shut the vehicle off and return to it. He asked me to check and see if I didn't accidently set downhill hold feature on the console. Easy to do by resting your hand there or putting something on it. That can cause problems too.

I know about the on/off button for the feature. The problem was after turning it off, when I came to a full stop, it turned itself back on, shutting down the engine. The computer kept returning to the last mode I shut down the vehicle in. I read everything I could find in the owner's manual.

I followed his instructions to take a long ride and turned the feature off every time it came back on. It took about four times doing that before the computer reset itself. Now all seems to be fine.

I will make sure the Auto Start/Stop engine feature is set to off before I turn the engine off from now on.

The Service Department clearly understood what I was experiencing. I asked the woman who told me to come in for service, Would you accept that solution, Would you be happy with the advisor's answer? She plainly said NO.

Now some info you may not know. The person in the Corporate "Genius" group said that group goes through more training than others at lower levels. He also said many dealerships have one person who goes through the exact training he did. He gave me the name of the person in the "Genius" group at my dealer. That's the only person I will talk to in the future. Today was the first day the group began taking support questions. Lucky for me. The service advisor really ticked me off.

He also suggested I go to bmwgeniusapp.com. It is an app for smart phones. It was released today according to him. I haven't tried it yet. Suppose to have informational videos there. Hope I got the URL right.

Thanks again, great support group. You may want to find out if your dealer has a member in the genius group. Most likely the dealer has.

Until you have your BMW recoded every single time you turn on your X3 the A.S.S. will default to ON.

BMW will only do this code update once at no charge. They will update your code so that it always retains the A.S.S. last setting. Meaning you turn the car off with A.S.S. off it will remain off when you restart your X3.

I still think there is some misunderstanding as you say "I will make sure the Auto Start/Stop engine feature is set to off before I turn the engine off from now on."

No matter what you do when you turn the X3 off, and regardless of what setting A.S.S. is set at it will default to ON the nexttime you start the car.

As long as my car is not in ECO mode it will default to the last setting. When I turn it off it stays off. Unless the dealer changed this prior to my purchase it's the way it come from the factory. I picked up the car in December of 2013.

Hmm, maybe the retained ASS setting is US model specific. I know we had to go through this exercise recently and the dealer coded it for us for free but they made special note to tell us we can't have them undo the coding without a charge.

I am in Canada and my car after starting it always have A.S.S feature on no matter in what position it is on before I turn the car off so it is not US model specific. So mine acts just like n55x3 says.

As long as my car is not in ECO mode it will default to the last setting. When I turn it off it stays off. Unless the dealer changed this prior to my purchase it's the way it come from the factory. I picked up the car in December of 2013.

Yes, your model was the first to have this functionality. e.g., see this thread.

Apparently from replies, there is some differences with how the vehicle should operate or does operate And many of you either did not read closely or you ignored the beginning of my last reply. I said...

"The person I talked to acknowledged that before the vehicle reaches full operating temperature, or if the ambient temperature is below 37F degrees, there can be problems."

BMW Corporate admits there can be problems due to outside and engine operating temperatures. You may not have been in the conditions I was in so your experience is very different.

Here is the information I have from the highest level of support. Unless you have spoken with a BMW person who has completed the "Genius" training, anyone you spoke to is lacking in knowledge. Over 50 years of buying experience has taught me that service advisors are not the sharpest blade in the bunch.

The information I have, from the top level of support, confirmed by the Genius trained person from my dealer who called to follow up with me this morning, is that the 2014 BMW X3 computer is designed and programmed to retain all of the driver settings when you shut down the vehicle. The next time you start it, it will automatically go back to those settings.

If any of you who replied had the service advisor make changes to the computer, obviously this may not be true for you. I know my service advisor was not familiar with this or he would not have suggested programming changes. They only do what they know and many don't know.

I could not disable the Auto Stop Start feature with the button because the computer kept reverting back to the previous settings. It kept reactivating the Auto feature although I had turned it off. Apparently the stop part of that feature is not the same as you actually hitting the start stop button on the dash.

Once I drove the vehicle long enough, it finally disengaged the feature when I shut it down with the feature disabled and all has been fine since. I was told The Genius program was rolled out and tested in Europe three years ago. BMW found it quite helpful, so they just rolled it out yesterday in the US.

My X3 acts exactly as they described it to me now. But as a caution, I will try to remember to turn off the vehicle with the Auto Stop Start mode disabled I don't want to have a problem again in cold weather that BMW admits is a contributory factor in operation of that feature.

I still suggest you find that Genius trained person at your dealer. You may have some difficulty identifying that person because it is a brand new program in The US. Most people at the dealer may not be aware of it yet. My contact at the dealer said I was officially her first customer and pledged her full support for any problem in the future.

She also anticipate taking on the role of delivery person. She said the sales people cannot keep up with all the changes constantly taking place. She said often sales people have the wrong information and give people incorrect answers to questions. I think we all have experienced that.

You may disagree with what I have written, but I am comfortable with the explanation I have from the top-level of support.

As long as my car is not in ECO mode it will default to the last setting. When I turn it off it stays off. Unless the dealer changed this prior to my purchase it's the way it come from the factory. I picked up the car in December of 2013.

Just a another note on the Auto Stop Start mode. The dealer Genius trained person told me they have a laundry list of things that can affect the functionality. Besides weather and temperature, the battery condition can cause problems, and a slew of other things.

Personally, I am staying away from any feature the manufacturer acknowledges can cause problems due to any number of things. If that's the case, it may not be easy to identify the cause if you should find yourself in the situation I was in.

Makes me wonder why they would install a system that is so persnickety.

I've done 18k miles in mine, and I don't understand the auto stop-start entirely! I have the manual transmission, and theres quite a few cases where it /won't/ get into stopmode even when I expect it to (ie warm car, no pedals pressed, no cold temperature, no AC on etc)... while sometime it will stop when I expect it not to (cold car, or stopping on the ramp after 100 miles of motorway, starving the turbo of coolant)!

Ive done 20k and also dont fully know when it will stop/start - the main factor seems to be battery voltage as if the car has been left for a few days it often does not kick in at all unless we do a 10 miles + run in it.
However Im really happy with it it works when it does and has never been a problem.

It's supposed to work that way in comfort mode. Sport mode is the only mode that disables it. And out of all the problems you might have with your car, kind of seems like you are blowing a little one out of proportion . . . just saying . . .